Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. The allegations surfaced over the weekend on Reddit, accompanied by screenshots that show the musician sharing a sexually explicit meme and a suggestive comment about the 16‑year‑old fan’s bikini photos. O’Connor has acknowledged the messages, stating he mistakenly believed the account belonged to someone else.
The screenshots reveal that O’Connor began the exchange with an image captioned “SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ.” The fan responded, saying she thought the account might have been compromised but added that she admires his music. He replied, “Wish I was hacked; just had a party night and I’m looking at everything with one eye, you know.” She then tried to end the chat, writing, “Ohh boy, get a good night’s sleep.” He replied, “But you blinded me with a flood of likes and hardly any introduction besides the bikini pics, so we’re both at fault.” He later retracted that message and sent another that read, “I did it again.”
The fan explained on the Reddit thread that she had also viewed his Instagram Story, which included a countdown to her upcoming 17th birthday. Below is her full statement as posted on Reddit:
for context i am currently 17 years old but this happened right before my birthday, so i was still 16. i have a public instagram but its very niche, ive been following bands i like for a while so i have been following simon for a few years. late at night i checked stories and i spam liked whatever it was simon had put on his story. he came into my DMs and sent me an erotic image (to say the least) while giving me the excuse he had been partying or whatever, continuing to message me. my age is the first thing in my bio. i reached out to several people within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared. i think more people should know about this. im hesitant to put screenshots here but i do have them!
O’Connor made a Reddit post of his own to address the allegations, claiming he’d assumed the account belonged to a longtime harasser of his. Here’s what he said in full:
Throughout my adult life, there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me. This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts. After a long night, I picked my phone up to discover that a similar profile had been interacting (“likes” to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories. I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read “Simon calls your bluff,” and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the “barrage of likes” and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a “gotcha.” After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication. I’m genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn’t deserve to be put in that position, and I’m sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them. I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can’t change what’s happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize.
